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Saturday, September 24, 2016

Books for October

This
month I am proud to announce that we have selected our very first Non-Fiction
title: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. I have heard so
much praise for this hybrid of science fact and biography, and so many people
have recommended it to me, that I am pleased that it is one of our choices this
month. The other is another offering from the amazing Neil Gaiman and I am sure
that his Coraline will put us all in the mood for Halloween.

The
books are now available on the Nook accounts and are ready for download.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Coraline's
often wondered what's behind the locked door in the drawing room. It reveals
only a brick wall when she finally opens it, but when she tries again later, a
passageway mysteriously appears. She is surprised to find a flat decorated
exactly like her own, but strangely different. And when she finds her
"other" parents in this alternate world, they are much more
interesting despite their creepy black button eyes. When they make it clear,
however, that they want to make her theirs forever, she begins a nightmarish
game to rescue her real parents and three children imprisoned in a mirror. With
only a bored-through stone and an aloof cat to help, Coraline confronts the
harrowing task of escaping these monstrous creatures.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by Rebecca Skloot

Henrietta
Lacks, as HeLa, is known to present-day scientists for her cells from cervical
cancer. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her
slave ancestors, yet her cells were taken without her knowledge and still live
decades after her death. Cells descended from her may weigh more than 50M
metric tons.

HeLa
cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer,
viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in
vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold
by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks was buried in an unmarked grave.

The
dark history of experimentation on African Americans helped lead to the birth
of bioethics, and legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made
of.